The Power of Cyberspace
by UniqaChica
Summary: They thought he would be imprisoned forever, but somehow, after ten years, Hacker has escaped, more powerful and dangerous than ever.  MxI
1. A Different Sort of Fire

(A/N: Welcome to my first Cyberchase fic! I love when I get ideas for long stories like this – it makes me feel like writing. And I love it when I feel like writing. :) But anyway, I've worked hard on this story, so I really hope you enjoy!)

Summary: It had been a long time. A long time for a certain cyborg to wait and execute his revenge. Three friends are reunited in the name of protecting Motherboard, but has Hacker really done it this time?

Disclaimer: The amazing "Cyberchase" is owned by people who would probably tell me that I'm too old to like this show.

The Power of Cyberspace

A Cyberchase Fanfic

by Jill Diamond

~Chapter One~

It was exactly 7:12. Inez kept glancing from her watch, to the door, and then back to what was in front of her on a timed schedule. He had no sense of punctuality, and at least wanted to get ready before he got there.

She carefully poured two glasses of ginger ale, and then set them on the coffee table.

The lights were turned down. It was their usual night in (if you can count "usual" as on no constant schedule at all; she often had to work double shifts at the library and he was almost never available). She'd already picked out an array of movies to lull them to sleep, and set a bowl of pretzels on the table for good measure. She turned one minute to make sure the blinds were shut when she heard an uncomfortable _SMASH _behind her. Turning around, she was not pleased with the sight.

Gatito, the little butterball that he was in his old age, sat pompously on the coffee table with his orange tail flicking lazily. A shattered glass sat on the floor, a puddle of ginger ale fizzing beneath it.

"Gatito! Bad boy! Shoo! Shoo!" Stepping carefully around the disaster area, Inez picked up the cat just under his front legs and dropped him to the floor, lightly swatting his rump with the side of her foot. "Bad boy!" she repeated.

The sponge and dustpan were out in a flash as Inez tried to clean up the mess before he got there. Not that he ever cared if her apartment wasn't picture perfect, but she at least wanted it to look presentable.

He was through the door as she was pouring herself a replacement glass in the kitchen.

"_Inez?_" he called. She heard the dull thud of his gym bag being set on the floor.

"In the kitchen," she threw over her shoulder, keeping one eye on her glass. "Just make yourself comfortable."

Jake _always _made himself comfortable. Even with her back turned, she could see him plop right in the center of the sofa cushion, lower to where he was almost on his back, and swing his legs up to rest with him before he realized that his shoes were still on. She heard the _bu-dunk clunk _of his sneakers hitting the hardwood floor of her living room.

Inez took a large gulp of her ginger ale before she made her entrance.

"Hi." She looked him in the eyes as she leaned against the armrest of the sofa.

"Hey, you," Jake replied brightly. He removed himself from his spot and stood to give her a light peck on the lips.

Jake was like something out of a movie. Rich, golden hair that the wind loved to tease and tug at. Deep brown eyes that literally made Inez think of chocolate every time she looked into them. And muscles that were beautifully visible, but didn't make him look like Superman. They had been dating about five months, and to Inez that was an accomplishment, since Jake's past two relationships had only lasted three weeks, tops.

He returned to his position on the couch, and Inez sat herself down (upright) at the other end, his sock feet barely nudging into her hip.

"So what's playing tonight?" he asked as he reached for his own glass of ginger ale, nodding towards the tower of DVDs about to topple right into the pretzel bowl.

Inez leaned over and started to pick through them, humming a flat note to herself that was more like a buzzing house fly.

"Well, I thought-"

_BLEEP BLEEP_

A desperate, high pitched sound rang quickly through the apartment. Inez reeled back a little and froze, listening for some hint to a location. She noticed Jake wasn't moving either.

_BLEEP BLEEP_

And again.

Jake crossed his legs under him as he sat up straight.

"What was that?" His blond locks bounced with every turn of his head.

Inez stayed silent, her mind going a million miles a minute trying to detect _logically _where the noise was coming from.

_BLEEP BLEEP_

"...Smoke alarm?" was the only answer she could arrive at. She didn't remember replacing its batteries in the distant past.

"Think there's a fire?"

"_No._" Inez quickly dismissed his theory and got up to investigate the noise for herself (not before taking another knock of ginger ale down her throat; honestly, he could be _so _simple minded at times).

She figured the whining would trace back to what she used as a spare bedroom. But as she approached the door, she found her search taking a wrong turn. So it wasn't the smoke alarm at all.

"_Jake will be happy to know," _she thought sarcastically, wriggling her glasses further up the bridge of her nose.

_BLEEP BLEEP_

Stepping very slowly, she now played "hot or cold" with the _bleep bleeps. _

Back. Back. No, forward? No, back. Left. Is it? Right. Nope, definitely left.

Her observant movements after a minute or two led her straight to the hall closet. As she pried the door open, a wafting cloud of dust escaped with it, teasing Inez's throat. A smoker's cough escaped her lips as she doubled over slightly, gripping onto the door knob with one hand for support.

_BLEEP BLEEP_

"You sure there's not a fire?" Jake, from the other room.

"Positive," Inez choked, righting herself once more. She hadn't rummaged through this closet in a long time. Avoiding the ominous rodent-shaped shadow, she began working on the top shelf. Nothing but wrapping paper and books. Some which she desperately needed to re-read, but now wasn't the time. Not bothering with the coats and umbrellas (the only things that _weren't _covered with dust bunnies), she squatted down and pulled out the only thing on the bottom shelf – an old, heavy cardboard box of things from her childhood that her mama had insisted she have when she moved out (for nostalgia's sake, apparently). Carefully, she lifted up each flap of the box with a single finger. One, two, three, four.

What sat on top of all the tangled Barbie dolls and jelly-stained stuffed animals and illegible construction paper collages was the source of the desperate noise.

_BLEEP BLEEP_


	2. The Impossible Jailbreak

~Chapter Two~

Who knows how long that thing had sat in her closet, neglected and with all doubt of ever being used again. Inez was surprised the battery wasn't dead after all these years. She held it with her fingertips, as if it might disintegrate with a single wrong move.

The screen flashed with every _bleep bleep _that carried into the air. She gently ran the index finger of her free hand over the screen in one quick swipe. In the trail of her finger, the screen was restored, and she subconsciously wiped the dust off against the leg of her pants.

It gave her a glimpse of the memories she had. It felt good to remember them again. All those adventures that nobody knew about. Being the kind of hero she only before saw in the movies. It made her feel important. And then it all just...went away. Not because anyone chose to, but the adventures were simply no longer required. She said she would keep in touch, and boy was that a lie. It always seemed to imperfectly convenient that she never had time to respond to any of their e-mails. And when they still went to the same school, what with her nearly all AP class schedule, it was like they had dropped off the face of the Earth. Her Earth, at least.

But now, with the SKWAK in her hand, she could remember the good times. The laughs, the games, the praise for their hard work, and the seemingly unbreakable friendship between the three of them.

No, four of them, she remembered. How could she forget _him?_

_BLEEP BLEEP_

The little screen flashed again, and Inez was brought back into the shock that someone was calling her on it after all these years. Praying that she still knew how to work the thing, she tapped a button with the lightest touch. Apparently, she could still work it, because a burst of static later, there she was. But _how _she was was what concerned Inez.

The normally psychedelic flowing that appeared behind her was barely visible, the colors heavily desaturated. Her mismatched eyes struggled to stay open. The signal was fuzzy and kept shorting out. Inez began to feel blood rush to her head, and not in a good way.

"I...Inez..." The wise old woman's echoing voice was weak, shown with the struggle of putting two syllables together.

"Motherboard?" Inez whispered, as to not let her boyfriend hear her.

"...Inez...tha...thank goodness..."

"Motherboard, what's wrong?" The grasp she held on the SKWAK pad grew a little tighter.

"H...Hack...Hack Attack..."

The human girl nearly dropped the device in her hands. That couldn't be possible. She had been there when he was locked away from the rest of the world.

"But...but...I thought we-" Now Inez was the one who was stuttering.

"I know," Motherboard interrupted. "Does not...does not change th...the facts."

"Are you alright?"

"Run...running on back...backup power. But...losing fast. Need...you...here."

"Come to Cyberspace?" Inez wasn't sure if she felt elation or terror in the pit of her stomach.

"Please...Inez...I need you. Cy-Cyberspace...needs you."

"But-"

"Portal. Your...your computer. Can't hold it...much longer...please..."

Before Motherboard could say another word, the connection fizzled out, and her image disappeared.

"Motherboard? Motherboard!" Inez cried, the unidentified emotion in her stomach now bubbling over.

"Inez, are you alright?" Jake.

Not answering, Inez carefully slipped the SKWAK into her back pocket and kicked the cardboard box back into the closet. She put on her best sincere face as she stepped back into the living room.

"Yeah, actually, could you give me a few minutes? There's something I've got to do – I'll be right back, I promise."

Jake shrugged, taking another pretzel from the bowl.

"Sure, no problem."

The brunette forced a smile and began to back herself into her bedroom.

"Five minutes, tops," she reassured before closing the door on him and silently locking it. A deep breath flew through her nose before she turned and saw it. The glowing pink circle of energy that stood just inches away from her computer monitor. She could see that it was already struggling to keep its place. Motherboard couldn't keep it going for much longer.

"Here goes nothing," Inez muttered to herself before she jumped, scared that she would crash on top of the desk her computer sat on.

She had completely forgotten how exhilarating it felt to fly through a portal, practically all of time and space hurling past her like eighteen-wheelers inside a tunnel. She felt heavy and weightless at the same time, performing unintentional (yet completely gold medal worthy) backflips as she floated. Soon, she saw a blinding light up ahead that told her she was nearing her destination.

Whatever it was still flared in her stomach like a bonfire.


	3. Shrapnel

~Chapter Three~

Exiting a portal was never a graceful procedure. You had to get used to gravity pulling down on you again, and more often than not your footing was never quite right.

For Inez, this was exceptionally true, as she stumbled her way out of the portal and crashed against the floor of Control Central.

"_Owww...!_" she moaned. She pushed herself up slowly, her left hand constantly reaching and clasping either a section of her skull that had made a significant amount of contact or her glasses which were determined to slide off the bridge of her nose. The last thing to come up were her eyes, and after a wriggle of her frames, the appalling sight before her froze her to where she stood. She felt her jaw unlatch itself from the tight grimace she had made to cope with her rough landing.

Control Central was usually such a neat and tidy place (due to Doctor Marbles' specific orders); it was an extremely alien scene to her eyes. Circuitry and vital cords torn to sizable shreds and strewn carelessly over the floor. The cabinets that protected Motherboard's hard drive, Cryoxide filter, and other important components ripped open, and their contents nearly completely destroyed. The floor was covered with a fine layer of sandy dust that no doubt fell whenever the walls on either side of the entire control room were smashed through. The holes left by the culprit were large and jagged – Inez was sure she would tear skin against them with even the lightest touch. To finish off the picture, the image of Motherboard that usually filled the story tall monitor against the wall was now reduced to a size no bigger than what a SKWAK pad could support. Regardless, whenever a wave of static surged through the connection, it reached across the entire screen. Spastic sparks flew from her CPU (or what was left of it), and for the first time in her life, Inez heard her internal fan working like a dog to cool her other internals.

"I...Inez..." Motherboard called out desperately. Her voice sounded weaker in person than it had over the SKWAK.

"I'm here, Motherboard," Inez comforted as she approached the monitor (carefully maneuvering the minefield of shredded, oversized computer parts). "Can you tell me what happened?"

"Strength...is limited. Must close...the others." She ended with a sigh and another burst of static across her image.

"Others?" Inez inquired more to herself than Motherboard. But just as the last syllable left her mouth, she heard another portal open and close behind her, a sharp squeal and _thunk _in between. She whipped her head over her shoulder to see the figure of another woman, about her age, rising from the floor and massaging her neck with one hand. She was taller and slimmer than Inez, with dark skin and jet black hair that had been pulled up into a messy bun (as opposed to the bun she wore ten years ago, which was always expertly crafted so that not a single tendril fell out of organization).

"Ugh, I had bad landing then, and I've got bad landing now."

"Jackie?" For a moment, Inez wasn't conscious of the fact that the name had fallen out of her mouth, and just in awe of the fact that she was seeing her friend again after all these years.

Jackie's hand paused in midair from brushing off the sleeves of her jacket as her eyes came to the attention of the bespectacled girl in the room.

"Inez?" Her face broke into a mile-wide smile as she hurried her feet around the shrapnel of sorts, throwing her arms around Inez's neck with a girlish squeak. Just when Inez thought her esophagus was going to snap, Jackie released her hug and held her by the shoulders at arms length. "Omigosh, I haven't seen you since, what, like-" Jackie's face instantly fell as her head, with the agility of a squirrel, turned down, then left, then right, then left again, still keeping her grip on the shoulders of Inez's blouse. "Um...am I having a moment, or has Control Central been turned into a war museum?" she muttered in the most grave tone Inez had ever heard her use.

"I know as much as you do," Inez replied, gently peeling Jackie's hands off of her.

"Poor Mother B..." Jackie reached out and gently stroked the remnants of Motherboard's console, as if that would offer her some comfort.

"Last...portal...closing..." Motherboard hummed, her eyes fluttering. Another spark flew from her internals.

Both girls turned at the sound of a portal opening in the same place they both had landed, spitting out the form of another human, at least a head taller than either of them. He flipped and somersaulted onto the floor as he exited, the hood of his green sweatshirt flipping up and covering his eyes as he landed.

"_Oof!_"

"Matt, glad you made it," Jackie announced causally, briefly resting her hands on her hips. Once again the minefield was maneuvered as she went to give him a hand.

Inez felt her throat tighten a notch, and just looked on in silence.

With Jackie's aid, Matt seemed to leap up off the floor like a jackrabbit. There was already a visible smile tugging on his cheeks. He shook away the hood and revealed to the world his bright blue eyes and tousled ginger red hair.

"Thanks, Jacks." His voice was deep and husky, making Inez feel a bit of warmth in her chest. She didn't read a lot of romance novels, but she thought that meant her heart was melting. The actual idea was disgusting, but it was a lovely sensation.

As the two before him, Matt allowed his eyes to travel and his smile disappeared.

"Aw, man...Motherboard," he moaned.

"Hacker has gone _too far _this time!" Jackie declared to the air.

Matt's eyes wandered across the floor until they crossed the blue toes of Inez's boots. His smile increased as his gaze steadily rose until it was ear to ear.

"Inez!" he exclaimed through a laugh. He practically leaped over the remnants of Motherboard to where she stood.

"Matt...it's nice to see y-OH, dear...!" Inez was lifted into the air by Matt's strong arms as they both spun around in a very cheesy circle. For a moment, she was deprived of clear thought, only concentrating on the sensation of her body being pressed against his. He set her down promptly, and she stared into his blue eyes, begging her brain for something intellectual to say to fill the increasingly awkward silence between them.

"You been working out?"

"_Oh, yeah, _very _intellectual..."_

Matt tugged on his sweater modestly.

"Eh, baseball scouts are everywhere, you know?"

Inez nodded as if she did in fact know, but was only trying to stop the minor adrenaline rush in her head. This was utter madness. Why was Matt's presence making her feel this way? She hadn't even seen him in at least ten years. But she had missed him terribly, and maybe this weird sensation was the result of a reunion without warning.

A pathetic tune of blips and bleeps floated through the air.

"I...I hate to interrupt...cybermates..."

Jackie jogged over to her friends and looked up loyally at the monitor.

"Go ahead, Mother B. We're listening."

"A-as you know...Hacker...has escaped."

"But I thought nobody could escape from your prison," Matt stated.

"Regardless...he is...on the loose...and dangerous."

"More dangerous than ever, apparently."

"And," Motherboard continued, her eyes violently fluttering, "I have...lost the ability...to monitor...th-the other cybersites."

"Oh, man!" Terror dripped in Jackie's voice. "Do you _know _how many cybersites could have surrendered by now?"

"Or worse," Inez added in a low voice.

"Doctor Marbles...taken...Digit...missing...backup power...running...low."

"We don't even know where to start looking for Hacker!" Matt exclaimed to the girls, his hair seeming to tousle more with his frustration.

"Oh, Cyberspace is _doomed!_" Jackie squealed somberly, planting her forehead in her hands.

"Take it easy, guys," Inez said calmly. Even in the state of crisis, she couldn't ignore the warm feeling when she realized that it was just like the old days. "Think about it – where in Cyberspace does Hacker always go back to? The Northern Frontier! I mean, that's where the Grim Wreaker's been parked all these years, and travel around here is pretty hard without a ship."

"Northern Frontier...portal..." That was all Motherboard could hum. Her eyes were now almost completely closed. She was getting weaker by the second.

A portal slowly appeared behind the 'Squad. It kept fading, just like the one Inez had seen in her bedroom, but the point was it was transport.

"Ladies?" Matt reached out on either side of him for Inez and Jackie's hands before pulling him into the swirling pink energy.

"Good luck...cybermates..." Motherboard whispered as she closed the Control Central end of the portal.

And then everything was silent.


	4. All About Portals

(A/N: Before we start this chapter, I just wanted to thank you all for your lovely reviews! I also want to compliment you on how patient you've been for this update and haven't flooded my PM with threats. ) Getting back to school has been all kinds of heck, so I apologize for the long wait. Enjoy!)

~Chapter Four~

Inez held on tightly to Matt's hand as the three of them floated to the vortex. She would have never admitted this out loud, but the thought of seeing Hacker again after all this time gave her a chill. Oh, sure, she was never scared of him before, but who knows what the ten years of private incarceration had done to the cyborg. She also wondered what had enabled him to do so much damage to Motherboard. Images of Hacker ripping her circuitry apart flashed through her mind, and her stomach dropped considerably.

Or it may have been from the fact that she was facing gravity again. She tumbled against nothingness, loosing grip of Matt's hand, and fell face first against a bright colored cobblestone pathway.

"Okay, now _this _is getting old," Jackie announced against the ground.

Matt was the first to dust himself off and get to his feet. But the sight before him sent him for a whirl. The Northern Frontier was a barren, abandoned nothingness (save for Hacker's garage where he kept the Wreaker). The place they had landed was sure abandoned, but remnants of colorful buildings stood everywhere. Large, torn masses of fabric sat listlessly on the ground. There was a lingering hybrid smell of sugar and grease in the air. Not a sound was made except for the girls beating against their dusty clothing.

"I think Motherboard made a wrong turn..." he mused, turning himself around in circles as Jackie stood up.

"Hacker's definitely been here," Inez added, straightening her waistcoat, "but it's not the Northern Frontier."

"Wait a sec." Jackie tugged on Matt's sleeve and turned him in the right direction. She pointed a long red fingernail out to the distance. "What's...that?"

Matt squinted to make out just what Jackie was enamored by, which appeared to be a fraction of a circle sitting on the horizon. Inez followed their gaze as she rose to full height.

"Well, I'd say it used to be a Fer-" The brunette's eyes grew to their maximum size as she cut herself off. She turned to her friends. "We're in R Fair City, aren't we?"

"Well, that would explain all the pennants," Matt replied casually, nudging a red one on the ground with his sneaker.

Jackie, on the other hand, was _not _casual about the situation. She threw her hands into the air and began to pace. Not thinking-pacing. Panicking-pacing. There was a difference.

"_OH, _man, we are MILES from the Northern Frontier! And R Fair City's been Hackerized, and nobody's here, and Motherboard could by dying, and Doctor Marbles is the only one that can fix her and he's been _kidnapped_, and-"

"Jacks, _calm down_," Matt articulated, stepping in the line of her pacing. He shoved his hand into the pocket of his sweatshirt. "We'll just call Motherboard and-"

"Matt, really, you are _not _that stupid!" Inez exclaimed with passion, crossing her arms.

The redhead's eyes were as innocent as a toddler's as he cautiously pulled out his SKWAK.

"What?"

Inez was indignant.

"Did you even _see _Motherboard when we were at Control Central just, what, two minutes ago? If we call her right now and have her generate another portal, it would practically be suicide." She put special emphasis on the last word, poking the air as she did so.

Matt turned his eyes to the ground as he slowly replaced his SKWAK pad.

"I'm sorry," Inez continued, lowering her voice, "but Motherboard is in danger right now. Whether we like it or not, we're on our own now."

"Oh, my gosh...either my circuits need a tune up, or I'm seein' a miracle."

The three friends turned wildly at the sound of the new voice. They spotted a tall cyborg with curly blue hair peeking out from behind an abandoned popcorn booth.

"L-Lucky?" Jackie squeaked, a smile breaking out over her face.

"Kids!" Lucky wheeled over to attack her humans with a group hug.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Inez asked.

"Oh, Hack Attack of gigantic proportions! It was just minutes after we found out Hacker had escaped. He just stomped down the midway, tearing up booths and buildin's with his _bare hands!_"

Matt, Jackie, and Inez all exchanged looks that read _something doesn't add up here_.

"But I knew," continued Lucky, "that after last time Hacker invaded R Fair City, I had to keep-" She looked over her shoulder and dropped her hands (which she had been talking with the entire time). "I'll be right back," she drawled. Her wheel started spinning and she was back behind the popcorn booth before any of them could say "pickles". Within a few minutes, she appeared again, a petite, bird-like figure at her side.

"Glowla!" Jackie greeted with awe.

"It's great to see you again," the acrobat replied sincerely.

"I knew I had to keep Glowla safe after what Hacker tried to do to her last time." Lucky finished her speech with a pat on Glowla's shoulder.

"Where's everybody else?" Matt piped up.

"Hacker's taken them all hostage," Glowla said gravely. "We were the only ones who managed to get away. We've been hiding just in case Hacker comes back.

Inez understood their worry as she watched the soft light of Glowla's energy radiate in and out.

"I'm afraid to ask, but...how's Motherboard?"

"She's struggling..."

"Wait a minute, what are you guys doin' here?" Lucky inquired.

"Well, we were heading to the Northern Frontier to try and corner Hacker," Jackie explained, "but for some reason our portal spat us out here instead."

As if on a cue, up in the distance another portal opened in the sky and a poor, free falling soul appeared. His scream could be heard for miles. Jackie could see his arms flailing in fear.

"Oh my gosh!" Matt exclaimed, watching the someone fall.

"He fell in the show tank; follow me!" Glowla said with urgency flooding her voice. Eight feet and one wheel picked up considerable speed as they ran down the midway towards the aquatic amphitheater, dodging stray bricks and melting ice cream cones all the way.

Upon their arrival, the someone had already swam to the edge of the pool and was struggling to pull himself out. The 'Squad focused intently on what they could see of him – the fingers of his wings and his tiny red cap.

"Argh, if I ever get my wings on that over-sized scrap of cyber-trash, he's gonna regret the day he ever programmed me!"

"Digit!" all three humans cried in unison.

The said cyboid briefly peeked his eyes above the edge of the pool, and then jumped into the air with a gigantic smile across his beak.

"EARTHLIES!"

Digit propelled himself in their direction and wrapped his wings around all three of their necks, squishing Matt's face against his chest hatch.

"Oh, Earthlies, it has been _too _long!"

"Uh, Didge? Air?" Matt mumbled, causing the two girls to giggle.

"Oh!" Digit pulled away and landed himself on the ground. "Sorry, Matty. Just, you know...ten years." He spread his wings apart to emphasize how long ten years was.

"Yeah, we know all about ten years," said Jackie. "Like how Hacker has somehow gained the strength of a gorilla in ten years."

"Oh, good, Motherboard's already filled you in. Well, after Hacker left with the Doc, I tried to follow 'em. But then I get thrown into a portal and end up here!"

"It seems like the portals are all over the place today..." Inez mused suspiciously, adjusting her glasses.

"The point still stands," Matt stated pessimistically, "we have no way of getting to the Northern Frontier."

Suddenly, Lucky's eyes lit up.

"Maybe you do," she countered. She took off in the direction of the big top.

"I think we're supposed to follow her," Glowla suggested, picking up her feet and trying to keep up with Lucky.

The full Cybersquad trailed behind her.


	5. Infiltration

(A/N: Long time, no update, excuses, yadda yadda, BEHOLD.)

~Chapter Five~

The humans had become a bit winded by the time they reached the back of the big top tent, but of course the others weren't affected in the least. Lucky lifted up a corner of the tent that hadn't been nailed down for the purpose of a makeshift door and led her followers through a maze of storage backstage to a lumpy mass of something under a dusty sheet.

"Digit, my friend, you are going to love me," she mused as she gripped onto the sheet. In one quick _whoosh_, she pulled it off, releasing all the dust into the air and making the Cybersquad have breathing difficulties once more. Jackie brought her fist to her mouth as she started to cough. Once the dust had settled onto the ground, they could see Lucky gesturing widely to what appeared to be, in essence, a pile of scrap metal and broken glass. But Digit jumped ten feet high when he laid eyes on it.

"It's the 1.0!" he cried, fluttering over to practically hug the junk.

"The what?" Matt inquired, obscenely confused.

"The Cyber Coupe 1.0!" the cyboid affectionately answered. Inez may have blinked, but she thought she saw him petting it. "The very first model. The Doc and I took it for a test run years ago, and the engine started to break down when we were flying over R Fair City."

"Digit and the Doc left the thing here," Lucky added, "and said they would come back for it later, but they never did."

"So...what are we saying here?" Inez asked.

"We're saying that after a little elbow grease, we've got transport!"

Jackie scoffed audibly.

"A _little _elbow grease? Digit, what makes you think we can get this thing off the ground?"

"Not to fear, Jackie!" The cyboid tossed his wing as he began to lift the hood of the old Coupe. "The Didge is...ooh." He stared into the open mouth of the dinosaur. Trails of steam curled up into the air as if to add to the impossible ambiance of the task. He turned to Lucky. "You wouldn't happen to have a spare hydraulic kroctor convector, would ya?" He glanced again at the open bonnet, and back. "And a few proton valves?" Another look. "And maybe some rat poison?"

Jackie took a large, ginger step backwards.

"Hey, in these times, you're lucky if I got a spare wheel nut." Lucky crossed her arms in concentration.

Digit dug his wing into the mouth of the bonnet, making a few clunking noises, and pulled out some sort of hose with a gash in the side.

"Ooh, that's gonna be a problem..."

"Um, I..." Glowla piped up. Inez noticed her staring uncomfortably at the ground and twiddling her fingers. "I might know where you could get some parts..."

"Well, that's great!" Matt exclaimed. "Where?"

"Well...," She wouldn't look Matt in the eye. "I know that...I know that Spout has a hydraulic kroctor convector-"

"Oh, no, Glowla, please," Inez interrupted, concern dripping in her voice. "Don't let us disassemble your whale for a Cyber Coupe that might not even work."

As if to back up Inez's point, another _pop _and _clank _sounded from the internals of the Coupe as Digit extracted a crooked pipe from the metal thicket.

"That may have been vital..." he said to himself, even though he was clearly heard by the others.

"No," Glowla said objectively, looking up. "Spout's in sleep mode – he won't notice anything. And besides, if we've got that jerk Hacker to worry about, there are some desperate measures to be taken."

Jackie hugged the performer sincerely.

"Thanks, Glowla." When she pulled away, it was clear on her face that she had a plan. And Jackie was always at her best when she had a plan. "Okay, Inez, Lucky, and I will go with Glowla to get the parts. Matt, you stay here to make sure Digit doesn't pull the whole thing apart.

"Hey! It's a _mess _in here!" Digit hollered in defense, though his voice was hollowed because his entire head was submerged into the bonnet.

"We'll SKWAK you two later," Jackie promised as the girls headed back out to the midway.

XXX

"Funny – I always thought he would be a snorer."

Spout's dressing room wasn't that far from the aquatic amphitheater, and the dressing room wasn't much more than a big tent, because the cyberwhale was so big. He had been sleeping soundly when Glowla, Jackie, Inez, and Lucky had walked in on him.

"He was, for a couple of days," Glowla replied with a smile. "I got so many complaints I had to reprogram him.

A chorus of laughter hung in the air as Glowla propped a ladder up against Spout's side, leading straight to his blowhole.

"Glowla, I still feel bad that we have to use Spout for spares," Inez apologized as she began to climb.

"Well, at a time like this, where else are you going to find parts for a Cyber Coupe?"

"Can we debate ethics later, please?" Jackie interjected, placing her heels carefully on each rung. "We've got a world to save."

"Aw, Jacks, don't get your shorts in a wad."

"I'm wearing a skirt!"

As soon as Inez reached the top, she pulled out her SKWAK pad and tapped the buttons.

"Hello? Matt? Digit? Do you read me?"

"_...Loud and clear, Inez." _Matt's image blipped on the screen, a dark, oily smudge on his cheek.

"Ah, Matt? You've got a little..."

"_Yeah, I know. Digit was messing around and pulled out the – what was it, Didge?"_

"_The pittonian quork infuser!"_

"_Right...and that apparently made the hundred-year gas tank explode." _Matt wiped at the imperfection with the back of his hand, but it only smeared the oil further. Inez had to work hard not to giggle. _"So what's the news with you guys?"_

"We're almost inside Spout."

"_Wow, you guys work fast."_

A proud smile quickly flashed across Inez's lips.

"We'll touch bases later."

"_We'll be waiting." _Before Inez flipped her SKWAK off, another _clank _was heard off screen, and she could see Matt flinch.

"I worry about Digit, sometimes," said Jackie, already luring over Spout's blowhole.

"Oh, gosh, I almost forgot!" Glowla cried.

"What?"

"The key to get into Spout's mechanics. It's in my dressing room. You guys go on ahead; I'll be right back!" With that, Glowla made a perfect back flip off of Spout's back safe to the ground, and took off outside.

"Well, you heard the lady." Jackie sat herself on the edge of the blowhole and pushed herself down the tube slide. Inez quickly followed, hands above her head. They couldn't hear anything else but their screams of joy as they slid down to the control room in Spout's head. Their feet scraped against the floor as the ride ended, and they bounced to full height with ease.

"See? Now why can't a portal ride be more like that?" Jackie asked rhetorically, brushing the seat of her skirt.

Inez cupped one hand to the side of her jaw and shouted back up the slide, "Lucky! Come on!"

There was no reply.

"Lucky?" Jackie called.

"Lucky, it's not _that_ scary!"

"Luc-_ky!_"

The girls waited patiently for some sort of answer, but nothing sounded against the hollow walls of the cyberwhale. Jackie suggested that they check on her by starting to carefully climb her way back up the slide. Inez followed suit, slipping once or twice on the slick fabric of her pants. She made it to the exit and Jackie caught her hands to help pull her out. But the grip was lost almost as soon as it was gained, and Inez would have slid all the way back down to Spout's head had she not scraped her hands in catching the rim.

"Jackie, what the heck?"

"Lucky, where were you?" they said at the same time.

Inez poked her head out of the blowhole to see Lucky's figure standing at the open flap of the tent.

"Glowla's gone."


	6. If You're Looking For Blame

~Chapter Six~

"Hand me another wing nut, could ya?" Digit's voice was strained, as he had morphed his beak into a screwdriver.

Inez dug through the pile of unused nuts on the torn leather seat and tossed one in Digit's direction over the cracked windshield.

"Ow!" he cried out when the nut bounced off his head.

"Sorry, Didge." Inez was much too focused on screwing the acceleration and brake pedals back into security.

Lucky had explained while frantically picking the lock of Spout's mechanics that Glowla had screamed the moment she walked out into the street. She'd tried to follow her, but she was gone without a trace. There was only one explanation that the Cybersquad could arrive at. The obvious one. This only gave the Cybersquad motivation to finish repairs on the Coupe as quickly as possible. Matt was working on the wheels and replacing pipes under the back end. Inez was concentrating on the mechanics within the cockpit, since she was the most flexible. Lucky was working under the bonnet with Digit, oil and engine grease slowly coating all their clothes. And Jackie, to everyone's request, simply sat by the pile of Spout's internals and delivered when one called out. They knew that if they made Jackie do any dirty work, the process would be slower than ever.

Inez, gripping the armrest for dear life, sat herself upright and readjusted her skewed glasses. She had been sitting upside down in the drivers seat trying to get the best angle to work, and now her face was flushed red with the blood rush.

"It just doesn't make sense."

Matt rolled his dolly out from under the Coupe and leaned his weight against one elbow.

"What doesn't make sense?"

Inez briefly lost her train of thought when all she could concentrate on was the oil smudged adorably across his cheek. And the lines of his muscles since he had taken his sweatshirt off. And the way his soft red hair fell lamely over his eyes.

"...Hacker. He never does anything quietly. He doesn't do his evil by sneaking around. You've met Hacker. Anything he does, he makes a scene."

"And your point is?" Digit asked nasally.

"Inez is right," Jackie piped up. "The last time Hacker kidnapped Glowla, he strapped her to a box of cotton candy and ran all over the midway with her, not to mention what he did to Spout. You'd think this time he'd do it ala King Kong, or...bust out in an Elvis costume; I don't know."

"Exactly. So why now does he choose to be silent?" Inez spoke slowly, hitting her hand against the Cyber Coupe door with every word.

"You know..." Matt started, staring off into nothing with a wrench dancing between his fingers, "how come we never came back? To Cyberspace?"

Jackie blew a stray tendril out of her face. "We caught Hacker and locked him up in Motherboard's prison. We didn't need to come back," she answered quickly.

"Yeah, but just think about it. I can't count all the times we came here for joy trips; to R Fair City alone. Yes, we most likely had to stop Hacker anyway, but our intentions were just to come and have fun."

Inez glanced down at him from her spot for what seemed like a century and then some.

"After I graduated high school, I threw my SKWAK in a box...and I completely forgot about it until tonight."

An atrociously awkward silence filled the air and she couldn't look anyone in the eye. She simply lowered herself back down under the steering wheel.

"Come on, we've gotta get this thing fixed." She was positive no one else heard her. The only response was the wheels of Matt's dolly squeaking again. However, as soon as the brunette met eyes with the steering's mechanics, she was alerted by a somewhat melodious, albeit fully annoying _vvVRAWRRRrrrrrrptptptptpt. _Her hands crashed into her ears for protection. A cry of aggravation was heard in the boot's direction.

"AHA! That's it, Francine! Breathe! Rise! Take flight!" Digit flailed his wings rapidly in glee, nearly knocking Lucky upside the head.

"_Didge..._" Jackie moaned, sliding a hand over her eyes. "You've _named _it?"

"_Francine _is not an 'it', Jackie!" the cyboid retorted, happily slamming the bonnet closed and almost stroking it. "And she's very sensitive!"

"...Inez?" Matt asked weakly.

She brought herself upright once again, pushing her glasses with one finger, and nearly burst out with a laugh. The small oil smudge on his cheek had now morphed into a full-fledged stain completely covering his face.

"Do you have a tissue?"

She snickered lightly as she reached into the rear pocket of her pants, pulling out a baby-pink eyeglass fiber cloth.

"Here."

The redhead caught it without looking and started to wipe his face clean.

"Thanks, Nezzie."

"Well, come on, now!" Lucky urged, now keeping a safe distance from Digit. "You guys betta' get goin'!"

"Inez! You refilled the fuel tank, right?"

"Of course, Didge. Would I ever let you down?"

"Next stop, Northern Frontier!" Jackie cheered, jumping up from some part of Spout oddly resembling a trash can.

"Lucky, you not coming?" Matt inquired, trying to slip back into his green sweatshirt while still removing the slippery inkiness from his face.

"Matty, as much as I'd love to, I'm afraid I would only slow you guys down." She chuckled. "I'm not the cyborg I used to be." The proof of her point came when she demonstrated the squeaks in her wheel and arm. "And besides – you guys are the Cybersquad. This is your neck o' the woods."

"Not to mention Francine's only a four-seater," Digit interjected. Jackie pushed him hard into the Coupe, crumpling his beak against the leather interior.

"Thanks for all your help, Lucky. We'll find Glowla, I promise."

"Come on, Matt! We're losing time!" Inez waved to him frantically as she could while pulling down her safety belt at the same time.

Matt exchanged one more smile with Lucky before he jogged over and hopped into the shotgun seat, for that moment completely oblivious to the existence of the door.

"Hey, why do you get to drive?"

"Rule _numero uno, _Matt: _don't _call me 'Nezzie.'"

Not wasting any time to wait for a response, Inez threw the Cyber Coupe into gear, feeling the throttle of the engine through everything she touched. With the press of a button the plexiglass room came down over them. Out the window, Lucky's hopeful figure was getting smaller as the Coupe gained elevation.

"And we have lift off!" Inez took hold of the steering wheel and made a snappy right turn, taking the 'Squad clear out of the big top and into the sky.

"It's been way too long since I've seen this view," Jackie sighed. She had her hands pressed against the window and gazing with a mesmerized stare into the infinity of Cyberspace.

"And Hacker won't be seeing it for a long-"

Digit was cut off by the abrupt warning coming from the radio speakers. Inez jumped also, nearly removing her hands from the wheel in a fit.

"Didge, what's going on?" she demanded, eyes darting frantically over the control board.

"Is that a good beep? It sounds like a good beep. Please tell me that's a good beep!" the cyboid cried out, his voice growing more panicked with each sentence.

The entire Coupe shook violently, tossing Jackie and Digit around in the backseat like toys.

"We're loosing altitude!" Jackie squealed, desperately trying to grab to something stable.

"Matt! What's the nearest cybersite?" Digit yelled.

"Uh...looks like Solaria!"

"Inez! You're gonna have to try and land her!" The cyboid was in such a state of mind that the propeller on his hat was spinning like a combine.

The brunette took a sizable gulp before her fingers flew over the control board, flipping switches and setting commands.

"This is not good. This is not good at all," she whispered to herself. They started to loose altitude at a much quicker pace, nearly at a ninety degree angle, and she jerked upwards on the steering. She set loose the parachute, but of course they hadn't even considered the possibility of needing it so of course it was ripped.

"Hold on!" Matt shouted, both hands death gripped to his safety belt.

The nose of the Coupe grew white hot before it collided unforgivably with the ground. The momentum shot Jackie and Digit into the backseat floor space, and Matt and Inez's safety belts pressured their chests to the point of labored breathing. Both doors on the right side had smashed clean off, and Jackie and Matt rolled into at least three feet of snow.

Jackie's head jumped up from the cold impact with a shrill gasp. Her well styled bun was now lobbed to one side, releasing more hair around her face and making her appear even more stressed than she was already. Her brown eyes pathetically scanned the gray-white wasteland that surrounded their scar.

"Next stop, Northern Frontier," she deadpanned.

(A/N: Once again, thank you for bearing with me in my period of irregular updates. ^^)


	7. Frigid Feelings

(A/N: Warning: short chapter. I just wanted to get something uploaded after my mini hiatus. Promise that the next chapter will be longer. No...really! Don'tcha believe me? ...Fine, just read the dang thing.)

~Chapter Seven~

"FRANCINE!"

Digit threw himself against the crashed hood of the Coupe, his tail propeller shaking from his sobs.

"Didge, let it go," Jackie quipped under her breath.

"What gives, Nezzie? I thought you were gonna land us in Solaria!" Matt zipped up to the hollow of his neck and threw over his hood as he snapped at the driver.

"In case you haven't noticed, _Matthew_," she began, harshly slamming close the dented passenger door, "I _did _land us in Solaria. Hacker's on the loose, so it's only logical that he would come here and steal the Sunisphere _again._ See, Matt? Even though I've been out of the loop for ten years, at least I still remember the important things!"

"Oh, really? Well I can see you remembered how to _land a Cyber Coupe_!"

"Guys!" Jackie pulled her friends apart before they lunged at each other. "Look, let's just all...calm down. We just crashed, and it's freezing."

"Here," Digit sniffed, pulling coats and scarves out of his chest hatch and passing them out.

From a distance, a shrill, gasping wail could be heard closing in on the foursome.

"_Oo-oh-oh-oh! Why-y-y? My Solaria! My poor, sweet Solaria! OH, the HUMANITY! What has he done to you...?"_

"...Is that who I think it is?" Jackie asked a careful whisper.

"This can't be happening agai-a-ain!" A thin, blue, legless cyborg floated around the edge of the cabana the Coupe seemed to have crashed next to, a thin scarf wrapped pathetically around the collar of his loudly printed day-glow shirt. His arms were to the sky, carrying with him a gigantic thermometer.

"It is," Matt deadpanned.

"Olli!" Digit called as he seemingly forgot all about "Francine." "Look, the kids! The Earthlies came back!"

The cyborg glanced at them in a long silence, and then simply burst into tears again.

"I'm seeing _mirages!_" he squealed with a blow of his nose. "What next?"

Digit scrambled over and pulled down Olli's shoulders till their eyes met.

"Listen, big guy! We. Are. Not. Mirages! I'm really Digit, and these are really the Earthlies, come back to save you! To save Motherboard!"

"A-and I hate to be pushy, but I re-ally need some warm space to pace," Jackie shivered.

"What happened to all the other Solarians?" Inez piped up as Olli hysterically fiddled with his house keys.

"We were having a huge surf competition down on the beach, and when the Sunisphere was stolen, the cold came on too quick. This huge wave was about to crash onto the sand, and then the entire thing froze solid, including all the contestants! And all the spectators just got buried under the snow! I was the only one fast enough to get away."

"I believe that," Matt muttered under his mittens, which he was eagerly trying to warm with his frozen breath.

For the next ten minutes they all were holed up in Olli's cabana, not saying a word. Jackie fervently paced across the entire length of the floor. She was so focused that Digit had to mind his own path when he flitted from window to window, gaping at how fast the snow was coming down. Olli rolled himself into a ball in his hammock and only whimpered when he gazed at the sinking mercury. Inez kicked her heels listlessly atop a box of frozen veggie burger patties.

Matt sat on the floor against a wall and ran his hands ferociously through his already mussed red hair.

"Inez, if you're so cold, why don't you get up and walk around?" he snapped.

"What?"

"You've been moaning and whimpering ever since we got in here!"

"Matt, I don't know what you're hearing, but it's not me."


	8. Thrown For a Curve and Maybe a Bend

(A/N: Now with a special extended/deleted scene!)

~Chapter Eight~

"I'm not crazy, Inez!"

"Oh, obviously. You've been acting so _sane _since we got here."

"HOLD IT!" Digit stepped in between the two Earthlies with his wings outstretched in case of uncalled pouncing. Jackie took hold of Matt's arm and reeled him back to the other side of the room.

"I am _not _gonna put up with this much longer, Matt. You both are mature adults now – start acting like it!" She lightly whacked his shoulder with the back of her hand to help him understand.

The cyboid turned towards the bespectacled girl and took in a breath to begin his lecture. But his attention was quickly taken by the obviously fascinating supply of fake meat.

"Nezzie, that's not you..." he hummed, passionately distracted. "Olli, help me move these things!"

Reluctantly, Olli rose from his whimpering and helped Digit push the heavy boxes away from the wall.

"Didge, why all the redecorating?" Jackie inquired.

"Well," he began, shoving away the last crate, "if I'm right...which I usually am..." He failed to finish the sentence as he lowered himself down onto his stomach and pressed his ear close to the wall. Inez and Jackie exchanged genuinely confused faces.

"HA! Oh, Mother B, you're brilliant!" The cyboid's propeller tail spun wildly in twitches of glee.

"Motherboard? Didge, what are you talking about?"

"Oh, poor poor Motherboard – she must be miserable!" Olli cried out.

"She's trying to find me!" he smiled, ignoring the overemotional tour guide. He pressed his ear closer. "'Cybersquad...'" he repeated, "'Northern Frontier...need help...' She's trying to send a portal through! I can feel it! MOTHERBOARD! I'M HERE! I'M HERE IN SOLARIA! MOTHERBOARD!"

Slowly, a small purple swirling glow formed against the bottom of the cabana wall – just reaching up to Digit's beak.

"JACKPOT! Motherboard, you are brilliant!" he repeated at full volume.

"I hope this won't strain her too much..." Jackie squeaked mournfully.

Inez took to Digit's side and glared at the portal.

"Are we all supposed to fit through there? It's tiny! And...what if we just get spat out somewhere else again? Didge, I'm sorry, but – WAHH!" Her arm, which had been used in pointing out the portal's flaws, was pulled through the swirling energy with amazing speed, along with the rest of the top half of her body.

"Nezzie!" Matt dove against the floor and held a tight grip on her ankles. He pressed the soles of his sneakers hard into the wooden floor of the cabana, immobilizing any more suction. Jackie pulled her arms around his chest to help with the process.

"See? I told ya!" Digit wasn't worried one bit – he simply hopped onto Jackie's shoulders, piggyback style, and commanded Matt to "let them fly". Slowly, he released his foot grip, the energy pulling him forward until he thought he would break his nose against the floor. But he was simply pulled through the tiny portal, Jackie being reduced to hanging onto his knees as they flew rather ungracefully through a condensed and dark space.

XXX

Jackie was the first to crack open an eye, even though it wasn't exactly a voluntary decision. The bold, chilly wind had caused her to flinch. Through that slit between her lids, she could see the rocky midnight purple terrain and the loneliness it radiated. Both brown eyes popped open when her memory banks were finally hacked into.

"Guys! Guys, look!" she squealed as she poked her friends.

"Are we dead?" Matt wailed.

Inez pulled away blowing brown tendrils from her mouth and she squinted through her frames. Then that squint flew wide open as she took in the surroundings. She tried to sputter out a just sentence, but arrived instead at a hysterical, breath heavy laugh swelling her ribcage. Had Matt not done all that summer weight training, she would have tackled him clear to the ground. He simply wrapped his toned arms securely around her waist and hoisted her high enough so she could kick her legs. Digit was showing off his special brand of cyboid "break dancing."

"Guys...?"

Everyone's heads snapped at the solemness in Jackie's tone. The wind was at solo once again.

"Look." She pointed a shaky red fingernail at the sleek, threatening hangar sitting in the rocky earth.

"Hacker..." Inez growled under a whisper, still subconsciously in Matt's arms.

"He's more dangerous than ever now," the redhead added.

"I'm scared to think of what he's been planning in prison all these years," Digit moaned, his scrawny knees knocking in.

"Well I'm not."

"I'm sorry, Jackie, you must have hit your head. Ya need an ice pack?"

The dark-haired woman chuckled as she stooped down to meet her friend's eyes.

"No, Didge, I'm not scared because I know no matter what happens to me in there," she turned her eyes up to the other humans, "I wouldn't want any other friends right there with me."

"Friend? Even after I ditched you guys for a majority of those ten years?"

Jackie pushed herself from the ground and pulled Inez away from Matt into a hug.

"You came back when it mattered."

"When it _mattered?_" Digit hollered. "Do you think ten birthdays in a row not matter?"

"_Digit._"

The cyboid wrapped his wings adoringly around Inez's pant leg.

"I'm just kiddin', Nezzie. I'm glad you guys are here when Motherboard needs you." The last sentence came at a softer level, and everyone subconsciously hung their heads a moment in hope.

"Now," Matt began steadily, "there is a mad, strong, psychotic cyborg in there bent on vengeance against Motherboard. Are we going to let him succeed?"

"No," the other three answered matter-of-fact.

"What was that?" Matt's voice grew louder, and he couldn't contain his energized smile.

"_No!_"

"I can't hear you!"

"_NO!_"

The 'Squad, built up with friendship and overconfidence, slapped a four-way high five and then raced each other across the rockiness to Hacker's hideaway. The cold air nipped at the humans' cheeks to flush pink, but to them it was nothing more than a bug on their windshield. They were so much in a high they didn't notice the racket they were making as they stomped up the metal plane that lead into the Wreaker's control room.

"Hacker!" Jackie threw down the gauntlet.

The luxurious driver's chair faced away from them. All that responded was a cold olive green hand reaching for a button on the armrest. It clicked with an evil ping.

Down over the area of floor where the foursome stood shone a thick spotlight the hue of puce.

Inez tried to reach outside of the light, but was impaired to do so.

"Hey...hey, I can't move!"

The others moaned as they tried to force limbs into animation, but it was useless.

"A new little feature of mine. Hackie desperately needed to install one, but he was just too darn stubborn before."

The chair slowly spun around, revealing a thin she-cyborg with tired eyes and a wide-brimmed hat. She clutched a spired wand in one hand for dear life.

"Wicked?" four voices exclaimed at once.

"You?" The cyborg witch mimicked the flabbergasted expression the humans wore, and then snorted her way into a smirk. Her shrill cackle echoed off the solid walls of the Grim Wreaker. "What is this, my birthday? Taking down Motherboard, and now the long lost Earth brats just fall into my hand?" She pompously cradled her wand between her fingers and began to file the nails on her left hand. "Wicked, darling, how _do_ you do it?"

"Motherboard's not out of the game yet," Matt snarled. His muscles were visibly tense; he looked like a caged animal.

"Don't be so sure." Wicked's voice dropped to a grave tone, and she looked at Matt straight through the head. "Within a matter of hours, everything inside Control Central will permanently shut down, including your precious 'Mother B', and there's nothing anyone can do." She slowly slid her wand across a nail again, keeping dark eye contact. "Without that bumbling Marbles of hers, the Mother is on her last thread."

"Sorry, Wicked, I don't know if you've met us, but we're here to make sure that doesn't happen!"

"Jackie, cool it for a second!" If Inez could have moved her hand, she would have put a stop sign to her friend's mouth. "There's something I still don't understand. If you're the one behind all this...what happened to Hacker? Everyone thinks _he's_ the real source of the problem."

A light bulb swapped on in the witch's eyes.

"Oh, yes, of course!" she cheered, something almost biter in her high tone. With two claps of her metal hands, a corridor of darkness was illuminated with hot blue spotlights, revealing a wide-jawed green monster, wires sprouting from his chest and curling up into the ceiling.

"YIKES!" Digit yelped out.

"Children...or, not-so-children, I would like you all to meet Hackie 2.0." She whipped her wand in a broad gesture towards him.

It was still Hacker, but he didn't look like himself. Every inch of him was blocky and gruesome. He was at least two feet taller than he used to be. His eyes were blank and meaningless while his even monsterized pocked protector was flashing like crazy.

"He needed a bit of a charge up after bringing me the Sunisphere, so I decided to put that ugly thing to work." Wicked was poised a little straighter, pompous from her nose to the tips of her shoes.

"I...I don't understand," Inez fumbled, still trying to make her eye take in the green monstrosity.

"What happened to him?" Jackie demanded.

Wicked sighed and slowly pushed herself up from her chair, as if she were a delicate flower.

"Ah...so many questions, and all the time in the world." The further she got into the sentence, the more malicious her voice turned. "Well, it all started when Hackie started having those half-wit freeloaders of his send me messages about 'how he had to break out' and 'I was the only one who could do it.' Of course, I _was _the only one capable, and he _was _in a place to grovel, but eventually I gave in just to stop those little roaches beating down my door. I cast a little spell that would make him strong enough to break the prison bars. And though his monsterlicious-self was able to pull it off...quite literally, apparently the spell had turned most of his brains into brawn. So now, he's simply just a little cyborg puppet. And I figured to myself, why not take advantage of poor old Hackie and take over Cyberspace myself?" Wicked finished with a smug twitch in her eye. Though her voice was chipper, she stared down her prey with absolute intended misery.

"So Hacker's just been your lackey this entire time? Going all through Cyberspace to do _your _bidding?'

"And bringing me back _thousands _of adorable little captives! Though, I will admit, those two women from Sensible Flats are a little less adorable than the others."

"We know you have the Doc. What have you done with him?" Digit motionlessly demanded.

"Oh, your little Marbles is snug as a cyberbug, I promise you that...and you four will be as well." With a slink in her hips, Wicked made her way back over to the captain's chair. "I hope you find your accommodations...quaint." Another dark flash off her eyes and grit of her teeth, and the witch slammed her fist down on another switch.

The purple light flickered out and the 'Squad found their joints mobile again. But the floor under them began to sink and eventually gave way all together. Matt, Digit, and Inez provided harmony for Jackie's scream as they felt gravity take full effect, leading them down a dark, crooked tunnel.

Wicked slowly let out a cold sigh as she lifted her fist and stretched her metallic green fingers. They didn't quite move with the ease they did ten years ago.

_I'm getting too old for this_, she thought subconsciously, tracing the lines of her invisible joints with a finger. She glanced over to the corridor where her monsterized companion stood motionless. A shaking hand of hers reached out and gingerly grazed her fingertips against his chest. She felt the dead vibration in his circuits as he slowly recharged. Peeking from under the wide brim of her hat, she looked into his eyes. Dead. Cold. Fake.

"I..."

She looked down at the instrument she clenched in her fist. She harshly threw it down against the steel floor.

"Stupid magic."


	9. No Cabaret For the Wicked

~Chapter Nine~

Matt was the shot foundation of the helter-skelter tower as the Cybersquad found the end of the rickety chute. He didn't complain, though, when the other three bodies took their time to climb off. His head hurt too much from the fall and everything else to act in character. Inez slowly extended a shaking hand down to him, which he accepted graciously, their grips matching in tension.

"...Where are we? Where'd she dump us?" she asked with a breath, rubbing under her glasses with the heel of her palm.

"Oh, of all the low-down, dirty...that's just cruel!" Digit griped to himself, straightening a wing joint. "She trapped us in Hacker's birdcage!"

"Hacker has a bird?" Inez asked quizzically.

"He used to use it as a prison cell for some torturous purposes. I've been in here a couple of times." He banged his knuckles against one of the bars. The resonating rhythm wasn't exactly pleasant. "Though Wicked has made some definite 'improvements.' We're definitely not gonna squeeze out of here."

Jackie buried her face in her hands, her fingers reaching just under her hairline.

"We've let Motherboard down..." she mumbled.

Inez reached her arm around and cradled the taller woman into her side in sympathy.

"...Buzzy, ain't those the kids from Earth?" a small voice whispered.

"Sure looks like 'em, Deedee," one more gruff replied.

All four members of the 'Squad turned around as if surrounded by molasses to find two metallic figures squat against the other side of the oversized cage. It was unmistakably Hacker's hench-bots, Buzz and Delete. The taller of the two seemed to have his arms wrapped around his chest.

For what seemed to be a few centuries, the only sound between them was shuffled footsteps as each of the Earthlies sat against the floor of the golden prison. No one could make eye contact.

"So..." Digit began, but his voice faded as he continued to hang onto the vowel.

"The little witch doesn't exactly like us very much," Buzz supplied.

"She scares me, Buzzy," Delete whimpered to his partner, who simply replied with a shift of his arm.

"So we've heard," Matt mused.

"Wicked doesn't like anybody!" Digit added.

"Except Hacker," Jackie supplied with a wince in her dark eyes. "Didge, are you sure there's not someway we can get out of here?"

"Wicked's rebuilt this thing solid! There's not even a hatch anymore!"

"What about the button?" Delete piped up, a childish innocence flooding his voice.

"What button?" Matt was lightened, but confused.

"Right over there!" The slimmer robot barely lifted his arm to point across to the opposite wall of wherever the cage was hung to an impressively large red button protruding from a switchboard. At least thirty feet or more out of reach.

"Oh, yeah," Digit nearly growled, rolling his eyes. "_That'll _get us out of here." He reslumped himself down onto the floor of the birdcage in a hopeless breath.

A chitter against Delete's partially exposed chest caught Jackie's reluctant eye.

"What's that?" she asked subconsciously.

Before Delete could answer, the bundle wriggled out of his hold and hopped out onto the floor of the cage – a small, blue, quite adorable bunny, eyes bright and fur brushed.

"_Aw_, how cute!" Jackie squealed. She slowly extended two fingers to stroke the creature's jaw, and he almost smiled in pleasure. Digit chuckled in spite of himself.

"I guess the ol' Hackie finally gave in, didn't he?"

The slender robot nodded giddily, lowering onto his stomach to aid Jackie in the affection.

"His name is George..." he nearly sang.

"Guys, I hate to break up the bunny club here," Matt interrupted, "but shouldn't we be thinking of a way to get out of here?" Nibbling on his bottom lip, the redhead produced his infamous yo-yo and began testing out different tricks to see which one would help the problem.

George's little damp nose twitched to attention, and hopped away from his faithful servants. With every yo, his hind legs pushed him up in excitement, and his forelimbs pathetically batted at the air below the colorful toy.

"Hey, Georgie, shoo." Between strides, Matt used his free hand to try and swat away the small creature, but George was much to interested in the toy to think about being scolded.

Inez, still sitting on the floor, observed this goings on, her eyes intently following the bunny's hops. The cogs in her brain began to spin wildly, as the gleam in her eye predicted.

"Matt, you're a genius!" she exclaimed as she jumped up, slightly rocking the cage with her sudden movement.

Matt looked around, and then poked a pompous finger into his own chest.

"Who, _me?_" Sarcasm flooded his voice.

Inez grabbed the plastic toy from his hand with retorting force.

"Shut up." The light came back to her eyes as she explained her plan. "If we use your yo-yo to lead George over to the other wall, we may be able to get him to jailbreak us out of here!"

"Oh, he'll be okay, though, won't he?" Delete whined.

"Snug as a cyberbug in a rug," Inez winked. She carefully lured George over to the side of the cage and began to toss the toy through the bars. On her first throw, the yo-yo soared a good two feet before it lamely descended and flopped, clanking against the floor of the cage. It was obvious everyone was trying to hold in a giggle.

Matt leaned over her shoulder and whispered in her ear, "May I?"

Inez tried to ignore both facts that were making her want to punch him (how annoying he was being and how delicious his breath felt in her ear) and shoved the end of the string into his palm.

With honed skill, Matt yo-ed the yo-yo slowly to a long distance from the cage. George, with little effort, wriggled his way through the bars and onto the floor, still hopping along to try and capture the elusive toy in his tiny paws.

"C'mon, Matt, just a little more..." Inez urged under her breath.

"We're running out of string," he groaned in response. The young human man wriggled his shoulder clear through two bars, which aided in distance but degraded in quality of strides. Slipping the loop from his finger, he willed all his strength into one toss and then threw the yo-yo completely out of his hand. It soared across the room, knocking against the opposite wall above the magic target. George jumped his highest, trying to reach it as it clunked, and landed his side right into the button.

A great _SKREEAK _gave out, the balance of the cage completely faltering. Everyone clutched themselves to a bar in safety. And then, in one quick _CLANG_, the cage toppled onto the ground, the cap perfectly detached.


	10. Torture of the Utmost Espionage

(A/N: I am not gonna lie; this chap was really hard to write! Anyway, enjoy!)

~Chapter Ten~

Under Wicked's reign, everything in the Grim Wreaker was dark. Of course, there were ribbons and bedazzled bat cutouts hanging from the walls, but none of her hard work could be seen due to the darkness. The six fugitives kept running. They had no idea where to, but between them there was a unified sense of getting somewhere, despite a lack of finish line. No one spoke real words, just noises. Delete gently shushed George when he chittered with excitement. Jackie squeaked when she felt Digit the Unidentified Insect brush against her ankle. Inez cried sharply when she tripped over her own feet, but once Matt's warm hand grasped around hers, she remained silent.

In an unexplainable amount of time, they all reached an archway in the distance with a faint glow peeking through. With extended arms poking from the shadows, Matt slowed them all to a crawl as they approached the entrance. As they got closer, they could make out a strange machine, shaped something like a souped up escape pod, working hard with the whirs and zaps it produced. When the light show died down, Digit pointed something out.

"Isn't that the Sunisphere?" he whispered dangerously.

Jackie squinted through the strange brew of dark and blinding light to make out the technical yellow orb sitting within the frightening machine.

"What is she doing to it?" she quavered.

The light and great noise from the machine died down, and the six quickly stole across the rest of dead space, pressing themselves against the molding of the entrance and peeking their noses out into the open air.

"_A little tired today, are we?"_ a gruff voice was heard. Heavy steps preceded a portly cyborg, grease covering half his face, who opened a hatch door in the side of the machine, carefully pulling out the Sunisphere like a tray of hot muffins. Lumbering out of view only briefly, he returned with a lanky blue something slung over his shoulder. Starting with the feet, he carefully fed the body into the chamber until it sat upright upon the ledge, and then closed the hatch with a smack.

Jackie gasped uncontrollably at the someone.

"_Glowla,_" she breathed.

It was true. The said performer was terribly unconscious, slacking like a wet noodle, but it was her.

"What the heck is going on here?" Matt demanded.

Just then, the uncomfortable whir started up again, and Glowla's energy began to radiate more than anyone had seen. The whole machine began to glow as she did, and then, through a spire coming from the top, a continuous crack of energy shot through the air and up to the ceiling.

"What are they doing to her?" Digit moaned, half covering his eyes with his wing fingers.

"We need to get that lug away from her if we wanna do anything," Inez pointed out.

"Ya mean the lug that stole our jobs!" Buzz corrected sourly.

For minutes the little rebellion could do nothing but simply stand and watch as the machine tortured their friend. Her head lolled in her unconscious state, emphasizing the helplessness on both ends of the spectrum.

They might as well have emptied a gallon of molasses by the time the strange machine decided to release its electric grip on Glowla. As the lug operator approached her, Digit weakly puffed up his chest and revealed himself from the dark hallway. Jackie tried to reach out for him, but simply squeaked and ducked further back away from the doorway.

"Pardon me, friend," the cyboid called out in a strangely friendly tone, "but what kinda hours is Wicked makin' you work? Just look at those circles under your eyes!"

The friends and partial enemies could hear the cyborg moan in response.

"When was the last time you got a good vacation? You know, if Wicked expects you to do a good job, she needs to learn to respect your needs!" Their voices began to move.

"Ugh, I don't think Miss Wicked knows how ta...respect..." The guard began to echo. Jackie and Matt both peeked out from their hiding space to see Digit leading the big lug down the hallway and into a corridor. He leaned behind his new companion's line of sight to give the Cybersquad a huge wink before disappearing.

"'Kay, c'mon, let's go!" Matt urged under his breath, already squeaking his running shoes against the floor.

"How does he do it?" Inez asked out loud.

The room was much bigger than it first seemed. The ceiling was high and the electric crack gave everything in it's path an eerie glow, making everyone who stood in its shadow want to stay there. The machine stirred and buzzed as it worked its unknown magic on Glowla, who could only sit there under her eyelids.

"Look!" Matt exclaimed. "Doctor Marbles!" He pointed over to the side, in a shadow the static glow wasn't able to reach, towards a large glass box where the Doctor sat inside, seemingly unharmed.

Jackie jumped over some long, thick cables to reach its side, and peered through the scum-dried glass. She held her breath as she watched for his.

"He's out cold!"

With a heated sigh, Matt ran his fingers through his red hair and stared at the ground. Wicked held nearly all the cards. Team Motherboard was up against a rock, and the hard place was coming in fast.

"Guys, look over there," Inez demanded. Her gaze turned all to the side of the room where the guard had been coming and going from. There stood more glass cages, similar to the one that held the Doctor. Some had simple ledges, one of which was open, and the rest contained pedestals and smaller padlocks.

"There's the Sunisphere!" Buzz cried, at the shock of everyone else.

"And the Good Vibrations from Shangri La!" Jackie recognized.

"And Zeus' lightning bolt!"

"And the Eye of Rom!"

The prized possessions of many other cybersites were present as well, all encased in glass capsules, waiting for their turn to be electrocuted.

"Why does Wicked need all of these anyway?" Matt asked, a look of a jabbed stomach cursing his face as he stared at Zeus' weapon.

Jackie looked back at Glowla, staring intently at the wavy pattern of her radiation, and then a light bulb went off behind her eyes.

"Wait a second...Wicked said that Hacker need a _charge up _so she decided to _put the Sunisphere to work_."

"That's it! Inez exclaimed, slapping her hands together. "All these items have the power to let the cybercitizens of those sites live the way they do. And Glowla radiates pure energy! Because of her spell, Wicked's using all of these things as generators just to keep Hacker functioning!"

"So that machine is a _harvester_..." Jackie discovered gravely. "...Well, we've gotta disable this thing if we're gonna save Glowla!"

"And the other cybersites, for that matter," Matt interjected.

"Okay, everybody just calm down; I've got to concentrate." Inez crouched down to the floor and rolled her weight against her slender shoulders, and finally her outstretched hands, glasses barely hanging onto her face. Due to her waistcoat, her blouse still kept relatively in place, but the hem of it did linger playfully below her bellybutton, which was enough to get Matt to shuffle his feet and sniff awkwardly. From her inverted position, she stared intently at the harvesting machine, nibbling on the inside of her mouth. "This thing's got to have a weak point."

"I hate to break it to you, Nezzie, but I don't think we have that kind of time." Matt had to force his gaze to lock with her eyes and not her abdomen."

"Don't call me 'Nezzie!'" she shrieked lowly, her face growing slightly red. "And unless you have a better idea, I'm staying down here!"

"Actually, I might...you see up there?" The redhead pointed up to the vaulted ceiling. "There's a little hole where the energy goes through. That's gotta be another room, or a vent or something."

"And stopping Hacker's recharge should be a priority," Jackie added.

"Okay, Inez and I will track down the connection." He wiggled the brunette's ankle in his hand, nearly causing her to topple. "C'mon, you."

If she didn't know better, she would have detected a smile in his voice. With a huff, she slowly lowered her limbs and glared at her fellow 'Squad member.

"And you have a plan, I hope, for 'stopping Hacker's recharge?'"

"Does everything need a plan for you to be happy?"

"No, but 'with plan' always tends to work better than 'without plan.'"

"Oh, really? And what do _you _propose, Miss Pedantic?"

"I highly doubt you even know that definition!"

The conversation increased in heat as the two slowly made their way out into the hall and down the other hallway. Jackie winced to herself.

"I worry about those tw-" When she realized that Digit wasn't at her side, she closed her mouth. "Right."

XXX

When the familiar glow caught his eye, Matt slammed his palm onto the doorjamb to catch himself, and reeled back to get a good look inside the room. Small and industrious, but serving its purpose. A thick hose sprouted from the floor, flashing with that same brightness he'd seen on the floor below. The hose contorted and split into at least five different ends that fed through the opposite wall; most likely Hacker 2.0 was standing on the other side.

"Inez, I found it!" he urged under his breath, worried Wicked might be able to hear.

The bespectacled woman reversed her head from the next door down, still a somewhat exasperated countenance gracing her eyes from their pointless argument, and followed Matt into the should-be closet. The redhead was already trying to pry the hose base from the tile.

"Matt!" she scolded, also in a whisper. Before she could detail, with an ungentle grunt, the tube popped right off of the floor, and Matt landed harshly on his backside. The crack of energy coming from Glowla's harvest shot through the air and hit against the shallow ceiling.

"What. Have. You. Done?" Inez demanded, crouching down to a squat to meet his blue eyes.

"Like it's doing any damage. And look!"

Matt nodded towards the bolt, which was now looking much less violent and actually starting to decrease in length. As it snaked back through the sizable hole in the floor, the two closed in on hands and knees, finally gazing down to see the peanut harvester and the insect Jackie. She waved and hopped a little, as if she needed to get their attention.

"_I think Glowla's all sucked up!"_

"Try and get her out of there. Is Didge back yet?"

"_Not yet. I'm starting to worry about him."_

"Don't worry, Jacks – he's gotten through worse..." Inez reassured, though not quite focused on her friend.

"We'll go ahead and head back down there – just don't crash anything, okay?" Matt winked.

"_Yeah, yeah."_

The redheaded young man pushed himself upright and headed for the door, with Inez following raggedly behind. But then, her eyes lit up in brilliance.

"That's it!" she exclaimed, forgetting volume control, and racing full speed back into the little room.

Matt whipped his head back for his partner in justice.

"What's it?" he called, jogging after her.

Inez threw her gaze behind her in return.

"That spire-"

She punctuated the sentence with a scream as gravity overtook her. In that one fleeting moment that Matt will remember perfectly for the rest of his life, he was no longer human, but simply a mass of adrenaline, strength, and passion. With almost a superhuman nature, he slid against the hard tile and reached out desperately with only one thought controlling his mind.

"_Inez!_"

She hung below him on one hand, while his other pressed deep into the tile, trying to keep himself from falling in as well. Her eyes were bright and dark all at once, large behind her lenses; a lost child. Matt desperately tried to pull up his arm, or at the very least bend it. His entity shook, but from the strain or his heart rate it was unclear.

"Matt?" she squeaked pathetically.

He acknowledged her with a gulp.

"Let go."


	11. Swell

~Chapter Eleven~

"...Matt, just let me go," Inez reprised.

"Are you _crazy? _ You'll be killed!" Matt shouted, as if the stress in his brain was audible. It was hard to believe her demand when her eyes were scared out of both their wits.

"Matt, listen to me," she whimpered, much to Matt's disbelief trying to wriggle her wrist out of his steel grip.

"_Don't you dare!_" His voice broke in his command. Without thinking, he plunged his other hand down to stop hers from acting against him. But in the balance loss, he just flailed it back up, hanging onto the opposite edge of the floor with only a few fingers.

"...Matt, look...that spire on top of the harvester...it's the beacon. _That's _it's weak point. If we hit it with a large enough force-"

"Inez, I know what you're thinking, ugh, and it's _not _gonna work!" he interrupted.

"If-"

"_You'll be killed!_" he bellowed, a wild judder shooting through his body from the adrenaline.

"Matt..." the brunette pleaded, her expression still not meeting her wish, "think of Motherboard."

"...I'm not gonna lose you." He felt a single hot tear spill onto his cheek and then drop into nothingness.

"I've never told you this, Matt," Inez started, uncharacteristically slowly. Matt felt a finger loosen from his fist. His last-minute grip on the tile began to slip.

"Inez, _no._"

"...but you're a really sweet guy."

There was a moment of silence, each bearing to the other what was behind their eyes and even more. And then, sucking on her lower lip, she released her hand. Desperately, Matt tried to grab at her again, but she fell too quickly.

Another tear passed his face as he reeled himself back up into the second story and all but flew down the stairs. She was the only clear thought conceived in his mind; the rest was just a raw blur of emotions and heat. His breath was bedraggled and eyes bloodshot when he slid into the generator room. He choked heavily on the cloud of dust that had appeared as he aided Jackie in desperately pushing away the pile of newly broken glass.

Inez lay still on top of the machine's detached base, curled into an unnatural ball. Her skin was covered in cuts from the shards. Her clothes were torn at the hems. Her haircut even had newly imperfect edges. Her glasses lay next to her, cracked and bent.

"Inez..." Matt croaked as he slowly took her up in his arms. His vision began to blur and he wiped it clean harshly with his sleeve. "Inez, please." His voice was reduced to a mere whisper. Her face was immobile; her eyes closed heavily.

Gingerly, he reached for her glasses, picking them from the poison garden of glass. He smoothed her hair with the back of his hand before sliding them back into place. The tears kept coming and he didn't care to make them stop. He cradled her closer to him, touching his forehead to hers as he whispered silent prayers through his sobs.

He felt her chest swell slowly against his, and she moaned in a fragile voice.

"Mauh..." she breathed. Her eyes rolled and twitched frantically behind her lids, as if she were physically fighting consciousness. Through his peripheral, Jackie was heavily sighing and bringing her hand to her slack mouth.

"Inez..."

In a burst of energy, the disheveled brunette threw her arms around Matt's neck and sunk into him helplessly.

"Th-this is not good...not good at all..."

"It's okay..." he whispered, "it's okay..."

"Mph...Didge...c'mon, we gotta go, gottago..." she murmured in an almost urgent fashion.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Jackie inquired, supporting one of Inez's arms as Matt did the other.

"Y-yeah, just need...need to brush it off-ah!" Slowly her friends helped her rise to her feet, and then, with a ghost's weight on each limb, they inched their way down the hall Digit and the guard had disappeared down. They hadn't gotten far when the ran into the cyboid himself, carrying a heavy looking key in his wing.

"Digit! You're okay!" Jackie breathed at the sight of him.

The initial smile quickly fled from Digit's face.

"Whoa...Nezzie, you okay?"

"Just a little scrape-up..." she croaked, trying to feign a smile. "The point is we disabled the harvester."

"Well, I was successful as well!" Digit hovered by his tail propeller for a moment in excitement, and gestured to his prize. "I was able to get this off that big lug! It's gotta be the key to the Doc! Come on!" Ringmaster Digit led the impaired troupe down the hall once again, twirling the key in his wings like a baton.

"How did you manage to get that thing away from him, Didge?"

"Let's just say the ol' guy wont have a craving for donuts anytime-"

Digit's face fell, and three others followed when they reached the arched doorway of the generator room. The key swung listlessly from his extended wing finger.

"-soon."

"Well, well, well," Wicked's sugar-poison voice sang. "Looks like someone thought they could play the 'rebel' card. Little did they know that's an _illegal move _in this game."

A scowl crossed Inez's face as she clutched her hand to her temple with a hiss.

"You okay?" Matt whispered.

"...Get Marbles and meet me outside," she growled.

"What?"

"Just. Do it."

"_Hey! _Look at me when I'm giving an evil speech!" Wicked screeched, pointing her wand terrorizingly.

Without any warning, Inez ran across the room at full speed, grabbing the witch by the arm and hurling her into one of the generator cases. She stumbled and fell to the floor with a shrill yelp. Inez ran out and down the hall with a speed that would have impressed Matt's baseball coach.

Matt, speaking of which, only stared at her new found energy, slack jawed. He tried to run after her, but she was too fast.

"Inez!" he scolded.

"_MARBLES!_" she reminded bitterly, a level of subdued pain in her voice.

"...I-I don't know what happened, but come on," Jackie urged pathetically, the same slack disease in her face. Grabbing the key from Digit, she trotted as quickly as she could to where he was being kept, the other two at her heels, and slammed it into the padlock. The thick glass door opened with a hiss of air, and Doctor Marbles' eyes flitted open.

"Digit! Jackie! Matt! Wicked's behind everything!" he exclaimed.

"We know, Doc; we'll explain everything on the way!" Digit rushed, tugging the Doctor out into the open by both arms.

"Whatever way that might be," Matt added under his breath.

"Well, where's Inez?"

"We'll explain that, too. Now, come on, Doc! Move ya feet!"

XXX

Wicked was obviously a slow recovery, because the foursome made it out onto the metal entry plane of the Wreaker without being assaulted.

"OVER HERE!" Inez bellowed, her voice resonating against the metallic walls of the hangar. She stood by the Doctor's Cyber Coupe next to the Wreaker, a giant pile of heavy chains and locks at her feet.

"Just got this baby free; now get in! We don't have much time!"

Jackie, Matt, and Digit had no idea what she was talking about, but were still loyal friends and did as she told, and all folded into the tiny backseat (not without Matt casting her something between a scowl and a fretted tut). The Doctor, however, was dumbfounded.

"Hacker locked the Coupe up himself when we first got here! Did you get all of those off _yourself_?" he babbled.

"Stop gaping and get in here, Doctor!" Inez snapped, clutching at her head once again before she sat down in the driver's place and slammed the door.

Marbles was so frazzled, he feared that the brunette girl would start the engine with or without him. So he frantically jumped into the front passenger's without a word.


	12. Inexplicable Intelligence

(A/N: BOOM! Two in one sitting, baby!)

~Chapter Twelve~

Heads were knocked back violently against the leather headrests as Inez slammed her boot on the acceleration. The Cyber Coupe roared to life and completely ignored the laws of gravity as it soared off into the organized chaos of Cyberspace.

"Whoa! Time out, Nezzie!" Matt shouted. "I nearly snapped my neck!"

"No time! And don't call me 'Nezzie!'" she scolded all in one breath.

"Inez! I must implore – what in Cyberspace is going on?" the Doctor piped up, holding on to the light bulb of his head as if it would fall off.

"I'm sorry, Doctor Marbles, but we've got to get to Aquari-Yum as soon as possible!"

"_What?"_

"Let me get this straight," Jackie leaned up from the backseat, flabbergasted, "the fate of Cyberspace is putty in Wicked's hands and _you _wanna go _swimming?_"

"I think I'm gonna be sick..." Digit moaned, wings clutched tight to his chest hatch.

"Sorry, Digit, but this is gonna be bumpy." With a growl, Inez threw the steering, nearly knocking her crooked glasses to the floor as the Coupe turned sharply around the Radopolis border.

"Inez! Please calm down!" Doctor Marbles shouted above the engines. "I'm not sure how much more the Coupe can take! I'm not sure how much you can take, either."

"Don't be ridiculous!" Inez retorted, never taking her eyes off the non-existent road. "I feel fine!"

The Coupe's radio began to slide back and forth, meshing frequencies until a shrill heaving voice came through the speakers.

"_You little Earth twits and your cyberturkey! I should have gotten rid of you while I had the chance!"_

"It's Wicked!" Matt exclaimed, turning in his seat and gaping out the slit of a back window. "She's right behind us!"

Digit jumped up to the front seat and punched the transmission button.

"Hey! Lady! Only Hacker gets to call me a cyberturkey and what am I saying?"

Inez pushed aside the cyboid and switched the radio completely off.

"Okay, she wants to play hard? We'll play hard." She extended her arm across the seat gap and tightened her other hand's grip on the steering wheel. "Doctor Marbles, I need the key to the super nitro-boosters."

"That attachment is only to be used in dire situations! How do you know about that?"

"You told me about it."

"I most certainly did not!"

"Doc, we got a steamed witch on our tail feathers with a mad seven-foot cyborg at her side – I'd call that a dire situation! Now just hand her the key!" Digit wailed, flailing his wings.

The Doctor reluctantly reached into his lab coat to pull out a blocky electronic skeleton key with blue vein-like circuits covering it. Inez snatched it and shoved it into the discreet slot in the console. A panel dropped down over the radio and, as if brushing her teeth or some other menial task, she flipped all the switches perfectly.

"Hold on, guys!"

With the slightest touch of the acceleration, the Cyber Coupe shot off into space like a radioactive bullet. Stomachs turned as Inez twisted the craft through the minefield of cybersites. Jackie nearly flipped completely over in the backseat because she hadn't been given enough time to secure her seat belt.

"BRACE!" Inez yelled, pulling back on the wheel with one hand as her other flew across the control board. Jackie and Digit's high-pitched screams rang in everyone's ears as the Coupe shook in an abrupt pause. The five heaved for air like a dying fish, clinging onto the leather interior with iron grips.

"My head..." Matt groaned.

"My stomach..." Digit replied in a nasal tone.

"Yuh...you've already enabled the submarine mode," the Doctor gasped.

Inez completely ignored him.

"Descending."

A flurry of bubbles flew past the tight windows as the hue of the sparkling ocean water grew darker.

Jackie swallowed a gulp of oxygen before she spoke.

"Okay, Inez. You need to take a minute and tell us what the heck we're doing – _right now._"

"No time." The bespectacled girl reinforced her grip on the wheel, not even looking at her friend through the rear view. "We've gotta find him."

"_Who's 'him?'_"

No response. Jackie felt as if her head would explode.

"_Inez!_" She would have steamed off into a full ten-minute complaint/panic attack had she not felt Matt's hand pulling back on her shoulder. He was just as agitated with Inez as she was, but something inside him told him to wait.

Every time he blinked he saw her terrified, contorted face dangling from under his arm. He saw her face completely still, surrounded by thick sharks of glass. It stirred his insides.

Eventually they were treading along the sea floor as fast as the Sub could cut through the water, and they reached a giant, scary looking gate. Inez flipped on the loudspeaker and closed in on the microphone.

"Hello? Is anyone there? We need to get inside," she called, urgency dripping in her voice.

A mermaid in a uniform poked her head out from the small, well kept guard post and swam immediately over to the window on Inez's side, flipping her fins wildly through the water.

"Earthlies? Is that you?" she squealed. She was clearly happy to see them, but an inch of terror danced in her face.

"You haven't changed a bit, Binary!" Jackie exclaimed from the backseat, hoping to be heard through the microphone.

"Binary, there isn't much time. Do you know where Icky is?"

The mermaid took a moment to process the question.

"Well, the last time I saw him, he was feeding by Pizza Canyon. Why?"

"It's an emergency. We really need to find him."

"_We do?_" chimed the Marbles & Co. chorus.

Inez wasn't phased by the outburst. She simply motioned for Binary to open the gate and threw the Cyber Sub into forward.

"And Binary, if you see the Grim Wreaker, let. It. Through."

The mermaid guard gulped and stared at Inez has if she'd grown an extra head.

"What?"

"Trust me! Just let it through!" she repeated almost barbarically.

Binary reluctantly pulled the gate open, the eerie creak slicing through the water, and the Sub shot through the vague stream of open water.

"Inez, have you gone completely mad?" Doctor Marbles exclaimed. "Do you _want_ to have Wicked find us? I told you before, we need to get back to Control Central!"

"He's the key, he's the key," she kept repeating on cold breath. A bead of sweat formed at her hairline and it began to trickle. She looked ludicrously uncomfortable, but she didn't intend to hesitate.

A harsh left turn at Croissant Cave, and the Sub dove deep into the bowels of Pizza Canyon. Digit gave off a sound something like a dying goose and flopped onto the floor.

"Didge, are you okay?" Matt cried, shifting his weight so the cyboid wouldn't land on his shoes.

"I just saw an anchovy the size of a whale!"

The redhead and Doctor marbles rolled their eyes in unison while Jackie complied with a high-pitched "Ew!"

The aqua-friendly brakes cried out in agony as Inez suddenly punished them.

"There!" she shouted, her voice carrying something unfamiliar. "He's right-"

Matt and Jackie were convinced that Inez would scream her lungs raw at the nothingness in the water, but she held her tongue. Another sweat bead danced downwards as she turned to face the backseat.

"Matt and Digit – suit up and go look for Icky."

"Ex-_cuse_ me?" Digit drawled.

"Suit up in what?"

"There's wetsuits in the back – now hurry up and get Icky to come out of camouflage." Inez was taking no nonsense right now.

Matt pulled Digit back into the cargo hold before he could complain, but he looked back once and said in the most grave tone she'd ever heard, "I hope you know what you're doing."

Inez stared back, captured, until the last of him disappeared into the cargo space.


	13. The Strain of Closure

(A/N: We're getting to that point again...)

~Chapter Thirteen~

After the four agonizingly long minutes it took for the boys to wriggle into their wetsuits, Inez had crouched down under the steering wheel and crawled through the glove box ('closet' would have been a more apt term), bumping and thrashing around inside for who knows what. Once Matt and Digit were visibly in the water, without reversing out, Inez reached up for the loudspeaker microphone and brought it down to her lips.

"Get the slug," she growled in almost inhuman agitation, and then tossed the mic down against the floor. The great _SCREECH _it produced threw Jackie and the Doctor's hands at their ears in agony, but they remained silent. Neither of them wanted to get in Inez's way simply out of fear. Somehow, after crashing into the harvesting chamber, Inez had become a New Inez, and New Inez was an Inez not to be trifled with; not in the slightest.

The Cyber Sub's radar suddenly brought a new tempo to the eerie silence. Marbles peered over his seat to evaluate the trouble.

"The Wreaker's closing in on us!" he exclaimed with a gulp. He began to shift into the driver's seat, shaking hands trying to get a hold on the gearshift. "Inez, I know you have a plan (whatever it is), but I'm taking control and taking us back to Control Cent-"

Quick as a flash, Inez reeled out from the glove box and promptly smacked the Doctor's hand away from the gear shift. She growled like an animal with an almost supernatural glow in her eyes, then stalked back inside her cave.

Jackie reached up from the back seat, tapping Marbles on the shoulder and gesturing for him to join her. Carefully he maneuvered so that his feet wouldn't accidentally brush hers, and clumsily plopped next to the dark-haired woman.

"I take it she's only been acting like this as of recently," he whispered, still keeping one eye on Inez.

"She's really starting to scare me; I just don't know what to do!"

"Tell me, when did you notice her behavioral change begin?"

"Um...I think it started right after..." Jackie lost the nerve to finish her sentence when she heard the deep, threatening beating of a motor just above the Sub's ceiling.

"The Grim Wreaker," The Doctor breathed in terror.

The ship sliced through the water like a bloodthirsty shark, looming and patient. Slowly it released its tiny supporting legs and landed swiftly on a colorful nearby kitchen-sponge bed. Jackie helplessly watched as Matt and Digit explored the depths of the canyon as frantically as possible, searching for the famous cyber-slug.

"Where _is _it?" Inez roared from the glove box-cave, a harsh bump punctuating her.

The Wreaker's exit plane slowly dropped from the belly of the ship, and a familiar tall, green monstrosity floated out into the open water, water-proof jet packs strapped to his back.

"_...(bzzt)...got him, Inez," _Matt detached voice sounded over the radio. All three inside the Sub peered through the windscreen at Digit and Matt floating by the crust edge of the canyon, and gently petting Icky who was gradually coming into focus.

Gingerly, Doctor Marbles stepped back up to the passenger's seat and pulled the microphone to his mouth.

"Digit, Matt, both of you get back here right now." It was something between a command and a beg. He was afraid he would receive another lash from New Inez, but she completely ignored him. The boys began to swim back to the Sub, trying their best to avoid the sight line of Hacker 2.0, as she backed out of the glove box and hurled two flimsy squares of paper at Jackie's head.

"When I give the signal," she choked. She soundly plopped down in the driver's chair and hung her head, violently wringing her fingers through her hair.

Hacker's dead eyes flashed red, and he slowly turned, swimming towards the Cyber Sub as fast as his water-jets could carry him.

"JACKS!" Inez screamed.

Jackie was taken back to her first grade piano recital. The pressure was almost too much. Awkwardly, she leaned into the microphone and began to clap a semi-steady rhythm, holding her breath at the knowledge of New Inez hovering over her backside, and Hacker 2.0 about to smash through the windshield.

_Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap..._

_Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap._

The water was still as the message echoed against the walls of the canyon. Icky blinked slowly and then brought his antennae together in two short buzzes. He lurched, and gave a great leap through the water, tackling the Hacker monster, and, quickly as he could, wrapping him in a coil of his thick slug blubber.

The dark water cracked with light and sparks as Icky kept his hold on the struggling cyborg. Inez gruffly gasped for air. Jackie threw her hands over her eyes in protection. Over the electric buzz, she could have sworn she heard the creak of the cargo hold opening and closing.

Eventually, just as quickly as he came, the cyber-slug released Hacker from his feeding and dove down to the very bottom of the canyon. Jackie squeaked involuntarily as her eyes adjusted again to the darkness of the water.

"Ha-Hacker's back to normal!" she cried, her mouth twitching up into a semi-relieved smile.

Proportions were once again correct (at least as correct as they were going to be); his face was no longer eternally cast in a blocky grimace; his pocket protector returned to sleek and semi-fashionable. Icky's extreme feeding had put him into sleep mode, but it was all Hacker – the original version.

"_HACKER!_"

Wicked's bloodcurdling shriek cut through the water like a steak knife, and she wasn't even using the radio transmitter to amplify herself. Her metallic cheeks were visibly puffed as she manually swam out into the water from the Wreaker's belly, slinking one arm around Hacker's chest and pathetically trying to lug him back into the ship with just a one-handed doggy paddle.

"What happened?" Matt piped up, just prying the last of the wetsuit off of his legs, with Digit struggling harder behind him.

Inez sprung up from her seat like a Jack-in-the-box, nearly foaming at the mouth.

"We turned Hacker back to normalIknew Icky could doit and correctlydisposeofWicked'smagicat...the...same-"

_Thud!_

Inez's green eyes rolled back into her head, and the next thing anyone knew she was on the floor, one hand twitching and her head tossing back and forth; the rest of her completely still.


	14. All You Have to Say

~Chapter Fourteen~

"Inez!" Matt tripped on the wetsuit still hanging from his sneakers as he dove down to her side, pressing his ear to her chest. "Her heart's going into overdrive..." He reached shaking fingers up to her temples, only to have them shocked harshly at the touch. The brunette subconsciously cried out in pain with another whip of her head; her eyes were visibly darting behind her tightly closed lids. A wave of cold sweat started to dampen her forehead.

The Doctor turned to Jackie urgently.

"When did you say Inez began her behavioral change?" he demanded as calmly as he could manage.

"...Jus...Just after she fell into Wicked's harvesting chamber," Jackie bumbled, about to burst into tears from the emotional exhaust.

"Of course!" the Doctor shouted as if he had struck gold, quickly hopping over to the driver's seat and putting the craft into a harsh gear. "Why didn't I see it before?"

"See what before? What's wrong with her?" Matt begged all in one breath, Inez carefully draped in his arms so he wouldn't shock himself again.

"That machine had been extracting the power from those artifacts that power so many cybersites! Inez fell into the chamber and now all that energy residue is poisoning her! Making her whole body stimulate in extremely dangerous ways! It explains how she had the strength to pull off all those chains, or how she knew about my Coupe's nitro-boosters."

"Omigosh..."

The turbines in the Sub's engine began to turn obediently as the Doctor piloted it through the waves (not before catching the Grim Wreaker in a tractor beam, of course).

"Not to mention it completely throws off your sense of rationality! In all honesty, there was a much simpler way to reverse Wicked's spell on Hacker."

"Yeah, yeah, we know what it did, Doc; how do we cure it?" Matt begged, his eyes never leaving Inez's lids. He wanted so badly to touch her face, to tell her it was going to be okay. But he knew he would only be electrocuted again. He could only sit on the floor with her and watch as she writhed in pain. Only when Matt heard the eerie silence of no response did he turn away, tears beginning to sting his eyes. "Doc!" he croaked again.

Marbles' mustache twitched irregularly before he coughed up an answer.

"I'm not sure," he admitted lowly. "You three are the only humans that ever come here; this has never happened before."

"W-w-well, there's...there's gotta be some procedure, or...something, right?" Jackie asked desperately.

"...There could be one way," the Doctor admitted slowly, the gears in his head almost visible they were working so hard. But as they were almost out of Aquari-Yum, he refused to reveal his almost-solution until Matt carried Inez to the backseat where she could lay down comfortably, and Jackie and Digit (who was being uncharacteristically quiet) squeezed up front. As he disabled the submarine mode, he gingerly explained, "There is a new type of corrective laser procedure we've been testing, for maintenance purposes. And since...Inez's poisoning seems to be manifesting mostly within her brain...it might work."

"_Might?_" Jackie squeaked in echo.

"You have to understand – this procedure is designed for cyborgs! It's never been tested on humans before!"

No one verbally agreed that the mystery procedure was the best option, but there was a unified agreement in the air that it was the _only _option. No one had the nerve to speak as Doctor Marbles smoothly piloted the Cyber Coupe towards Control Central. The only sounds that battled with the engine for any sort of dominance were the constant cries of shock Inez released as her head lashed back and forth. Her face was twisted in pain, eyes screwed tight. It ripped Matt apart to have to see her in such a way, but he couldn't break himself from staring her down, gently stroking her hand that wasn't twitching.

XXX

"Oh, poor Motherboard," the Doctor moaned as they finally arrived, landing the Coupe and it's cargo swiftly on the designated platform. He practically kicked the driver's door open as he helped Matt carry the broken brunette to safety. "Digit?"

The loyal cyboid appeared at his side almost instantaneously.

"Make absolutely sure that Wicked and Hacker don't get away until we can lock them up. And then, if you can, start the repairs on Motherboard."

"Yes, sir," Digit saluted, and then hovered away and inside the Grim Wreaker.

Without another word, Marbles trotted inside (or as much of an inside as there could be with half the ceiling missing), trying to reach some level of speed, but the bittersweet bundle in his arms was making it difficult. He stole a fallen glance at what remained of Motherboard, mostly to that her screen had grown even smaller, ridden with waves of static, and that she no longer had the energy to try and speak. But he kept walking as Inez kept moaning. He led them down the stairs below Motherboard's monitor and took Inez into a small, brightly lit room, surprisingly untouched by Hacker's rampage.

Matt was prepared to follow him, but Marbles turned on a heel and looked him straight in the eye.

"You stay here," was all he said.

Jackie could visibly see the tension just running through his neck, and gently pulled him away from the door before he said something he would surely regret. The Doctor shut the door with a sigh and locked it tight.

For at least ten minutes, roles were drastically reversed. Jackie sat against what was left of a wall, being more silent than she had been in years, and Matt was pacing the dusty floor in such earnest you'd think he was trying to will himself to become a racehorse. He'd wrangled his fingers through his hair so many times it looked like it was about ready to fall out. Jackie couldn't remember the last time he blinked.

At one point he purposely failed to turn around and ran the crown of his bowed head straight against the wall. What startled Jackie more was that he gave no notion of pain.

"This is my fault..." he groaned under his breath, but just loud enough for Jackie to hear.

"Matt, it's nobody's fault. It was just an accident. You did your best-"

"No...no, I shouldn't have let her fall...I should've been more assertive, I should've..." he sighed in desperation, giving his hair another once over. "...Do you know it was her idea to fall into that thing?"

"What?"

"She figured out that if we hit the spire hard enough, it would break, and since she was already in position..." Matt balled his hand into a white-knuckled fist. "...and I could've stopped her...if I had just tried harder-"

He was interrupted by the clicks of the tumblers of Doctor Marbles' mysterious room unlocking. He came out almost in full scrubs, pulling off a pair of tinted goggles and dabbing at his face with a damp towel. His eyes were bloodshot.

"Well?" Matt begged.

"...She should just be waking up." His face was drained of emotion, giving no signs of a good or bad outcome.

The young man burst into the operating room like an impatient wind, quickly at the side of the cold table where Inez lay, breathing tenderly. Subconsciously, he wrapped his fingers around her hand.

"Inez?" he choked, praying on everything that she would be alright.

She gave a gentle moan as an answer, and her eyelids lazily began to slide open. Her chest swelled as she took in a smooth breath of air.

"Inez, how do you feel?" A couple fingers from his right began to stroke their way through her soft brown hair. He wrapped himself ever so slightly tighter around her hand.

As her lids rose to their full height, her pale green irises began to dart slowly around the room, finally settling on Matt's equally pale blue ones.

"Inez?"

"...Where am I?"

"You're in Control Central. Don't worry; whatever Marbles did seems to have worked and you're gonna be fine," he spilled, his breath slightly irregular.

"...Control Central? ...Marbles? ...I don't know what you're talking about."

"Look, Inez, everything's gonna..." Matt gulped harshly. "...Inez, do you...do you know my name?"

"..."


	15. Back to a Beat

(A/N: I apologize that it's not exactly thick. ENJOY!)

~Chapter Fifteen~

Jackie and Marbles silently slipped into the room, watching as Matt gingerly helped Inez sit upright on the metal table. Her eyes were completely lost behind her cracked glasses.

"Do you...remember anything at all?" he asked gently.

"I...I know that my name is 'Inez', and..." She brought her fingertips to her mouth in some form of concentration. "I guess that's it," she concluded gravely. She turned to Matt, his eyes flooded with absent emotion. "Why are you staring at me?"

The redhead realized his mistake and turned his gaze down to his shoes.

"I'm sorry," Doctor Marbles piped up, "this is my fault."

"No-no, Doc, this is...nobody's fault," Matt retorted softly. "Nobody knew what would happen – you said so yourself."

"Inez?" Jackie cooed quietly, reaching out a hand to brush her arm. "Hi...I'm Jackie, and this is Matt and Doctor Marbles."

The brunette tried to feign a smile.

"You all seem like such nice people; I wish I could remember you."

"It's okay..." Matt instinctively grabbed for her hand, and then shyly pulled it away again.

XXX

"Wicked Witch, by the order of the Cyber Grand Council, I hereby place you under permanent arrest," Marbles recited as he slid open the thick door of Wicked's new cell. With the key he held in his fist, he unlocked the electronic cuffs that Digit had put her in earlier. As she was pushed into her cell, a barbaric scowl graced her face.

"You do anything to Hackie, and I _swear _I'll turn you all into frogs!" she screeched, desperately trying to wring the cell bars in her metallic hands.

She was completely ignored as the Doctor fervently established the lock on her cell.

"See, Hacker's the main bad guy around here," Jackie explained, pointing to the sleeping cyborg they had propped up against the wall, "and he _was_ in prison, and now we're locking Wicked up for breaking him _out _of prison."

"I...think I understand," Inez answered sincerely, then pressed her knuckles pathetically against her cheek. "I'm sorry; I probably knew this once and now I'm just looking like an idiot..."

"No, no! You're doing fine!" Jackie reassured with a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"Matt, bring Hacker over here, would you?" Marbles requested as he opened the cell next to Wicked's.

"Like it's so easy," he grumbled under his breath so the lightbulb-head wouldn't hear. Locking his arms around the cyborg's stomach, he began to lug him against the floor over to his cell.

"I got'cha, Matty." With all his strength, Digit hovered over Hacker's stick-like legs and pulled them up off the ground so they wouldn't drag.

"Thanks, Didge," Matt wheezed.

They both handed him over to the Doctor, who sat him upright on the cell bench. The electro-cuffs clicked soundly as he unlocked them.

"Oh, thank you, Doctor Marbles, you are _really _too kind," a deep voice crooned. Hacker's eyes opened with a flash, full and bright and full of chaos. Before anyone could even utter a sound, he pushed Marbles aside and took off for the door.

"Run, Hackie, run!" Wicked cheered, beating her palm against the bars.

"Agh...after him!" the Doctor choked out from his place on the floor, and Matt immediately took to the task.

Hacker laughed maniacally and ran up the dark stairwell.

"Oh, the Hack is back, baby!"

"He's getting away!" Matt shouted, nearly burning the rubber in his sneakers to catch up with him. But Hacker was much faster than Wicked could ever be with the Wreaker. By the time Matt made it out to the platform and stepped one foot onto the steel plane, the engines were already starting up and working fast. The ship began to rumble and rise. Matt uncontrollably flailed his arms in a desperate attempt to keep his balance.

"_Matt!_"

Inez was right on his heels, something familiar sparking in her eyes.

Matt's bird maneuvers weren't enough to sustain him. As the Grim Wreaker began to pick up speed, his foot slipped off the plane and gravity became the dominant player in his game.

The brunette extended her arms for some ridiculous reason (she knew she wouldn't be able to catch him; she wasn't strong enough), but somehow, in an attempt to "steer" his falling, Matt crashed right into her, knocking them both to the ground in a puff of dust.

"_Bye bye, kiddies! Don't forget to write!" _called Hacker over the Wreaker's loudspeaker as he flew off to who-knows-where-in-Cyberspace.

"Ooh, I _hate _that guy!" Digit grumbled.

"Matt! Matt!" Inez tried to sit up as best she could with the human man sitting on top of her. "Are you alright? Did you break any..." her voice drifted off as she gasped for air.

"You-you remembered my name..." Matt sighed with a dopey smile.

Inez's eyes widened considerably as two little wires in her brain sparked a flame.

"Oh my gosh, I remembered your name!" she repeated, her smile stretching across her entire face. She clung her arms tightly around Matt's neck and laughed as hard as she could, relieved.

"So you remember everything?"

"Everything I did...I'm so sorry for turning into such a monster-"

"It wasn't your fault," Matt coaxed.

"No, it was. I was being incompetent. I should have known breaking that thing would have consequences," Inez retorted, matter-of-fact. "And you have no reason to be so nice to me! I mean, did you _see _the way I was yelling at you and-"

She was interrupted as Matt leaned down and gently pressed his lips to hers.


	16. Epilogue

~Epilogue~

Before she knew it, the joy ride was over. She was back in her boring room with its boring walls. There were no cyborgs, no spaceships, just normality. She had no reason to worry anymore. Digit and Marbles were repairing Motherboard as best they could, and whenever Hacker leered his ugly face again, she would have her SKWAK with her at all times.

She got a glimpse of herself in the mirror. The hem of her haircut was frizzy and uneven. Her pants were scuffed and wrinkled. Her glasses were ruined. She chuckled at herself.

She had never seen a better her before.

Clearing her throat, she opened her bedroom door and stepped out into the pathetically teeny living room. Jake was still there in his socks, munching on pretzels as he analyzed the DVDs she had laid out.

"Hey, I didn't take long, did I?"

Jake's chocolate eyes grew wide when he caught sight of her raggedy appearance.

"Uh, you've only, uh, been gone about five minutes-what were you doing in there?" he stuttered.

Inez twiddled with her fingers briefly.

"Let's just get to the chase – I don't think we should see each other anymore."

Jake was caught completely still, only moving to blink.

"...What?"

"I've realized that my life right now has much more going on than I realized, and I just don't think we're going to work out," she explained calmly while retrieving his gym bag from her door.

"...So let me get this straight – _you're _dumping _me?_"

"Jake, can we please just be adults about this?" Inez inquired, crossing her arms.

Silently, the buff blond slipped his tennis shoes back on and slung his duffel over his shoulder. He crawled to the door with a mixture of confusion and crestfallen.

"Just...do one thing for me?" she piped up before he opened the door. He turned around slowly. "...Call me 'Nezzie.'"

"Uh...Nezzie," he shrugged.

"...No, it's _cute _when you say it."

Assuming correctly that her assessment was a bad thing, Jake turned again and walked out the door, still in a daze.

After her door clicked shut, Inez sighed, like some nonchalant weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She turned her palms to the ceiling and smiled at the number strings that sat in them.

Pink ink on the right, and green ink on the left.

_THE END_


	17. Extended Author's Note

**HEY DOODZ...**

I just wanted to give a big honkin' THANK YOU to all of my lovely readers for putting up with my craziness as I finished this. All of your reviews have been so wonderful and they just kept me wanting to write. (I swear, I've been living on nothing but Ritz for the past three days...) Be sure to take part in the poll on my profile for what big multi-chap I should write next (it won't be for a while though, because my brain is totally FRIED, but I will listen to your input, I promise).

Okay, so I'm gonna go watch my new "Clash of the Titans" DVD and sleep...yeah, sleep sounds good...

Once again thank you, and have a very happy new year! *kazoo*


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